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Commercial Unit
Up to 25% savings off your company's electric bill!
The Commercial/Industrial market is more complex than the Residential market. In the Residential market, we have sized the KVAR Energy Controller to work with most homes in the U.S., but the motors in the Commercial/Industrial market have to be sized for optimal savings.
The Optimization Sizing System provides a simple and accurate way for measuring and optimizing the power factor to unity of individual inductive loads (motors). All Optimizers size up to 600 volts.
This system consists of three units for sizing:
SINGLE PHASE UNIT we call US1, sizes all single phase equipment
THREE PHASE UNIT we call US2, sizes fractional motors up to 75hp
THREE PHASE UNIT we call US3, sizes motors 75hp up to 300hp.
What is Power Factor?
Power Factor is the relationship between actual working power and total power consumed. In other words, it’s a measurement of how effectively the power is being used. Reactive Power (kVAR) is required to maintain the voltage to deliver the Active Power (watts), which creates Power Factor. A low power factor means the utility company has to provide more reactive power with the active power to get the motors to run. This results in larger generators, transformers and other equipment that really shouldn’t be necessary. The KVAR Energy Controller regulates this imbalance and you get more watts.
Cause of Low Power Factor
Low power factor is caused by inductive loads, (such as transformers, electric motors, and high-intensity discharge lighting), which are a major portion of the power consumed in industrial complexes. Unlike resistive loads that create heat by consuming kilowatts, inductive loads require the current to create a magnetic field, and the magnetic field produces the desired work. The total or apparent power required by an inductive device is a composite of the following:
- Real power (measured in kilowatts, kW)
- Reactive power, the nonworking power caused by the magnetizing current, required to operate the device (measured in kilovolt-amperes-reactive, kVAR). Reactive power required by inductive loads increases the amount of apparent power (measured in kilovolt amps, kVA) in your distribution system. The increase in reactive and apparent power causes the power factor to decrease.
Lightly-loaded or varying-load inductive equipment such as HVAC systems, arc furnaces, molding equipment, presses, etc., are all examples of equipment that can have a poor power factor. One of the worst offenders is a lightly loaded induction motor (e.g., saws, conveyors, compressors, grinders, etc.).
End users should be concerned about low power factor because it means that they are using a facility's electrical system capacity inefficiently. It can cause equipment overloads, low voltage conditions, greater line losses, and increased heating of equipment that can shorten service life. Most importantly, low power factor can increase an electric bill with higher total demand charges and cost per kWh.
Why Improve Your Power Factor?
- Your utility bill will be less. Low power factor requires an increase in the Utility Companies generation and transmission capacity to handle the reactive power component caused by inductive loads. Utilities usually charge a penalty fee to customers with power factors less than 0.95. You can avoid this additional fee by increasing your power factor.
- Uncorrected power factor will cause power losses in your distribution system. You may experience voltage drops as power losses increase. Excessive voltage drops can cause overheating and premature failure of motors and other inductive equipment.
- Power capacitors act as reactive current generators. By providing the reactive current, they reduce the total amount of current your system must draw from the utility company.
Correcting Your Power Factor
Install capacitors in your AC circuit to decrease the reactive power. Capacitors draw leading reactive power. That means the current is 180 degrees out of phase with inductive loads, so they are storing energy when inductive loads are releasing it back to the line and vice versa. The presence of both inductive and capacitive reactance in the same circuit results in the continuous alternating transfer of energy between the capacitor and the inductive load, thereby reducing the current flow from the line. Basically, energy is caught and reflected back by the capacitor instead of having to flow all the way back and forth from the utility company.
After sizing is completed, a precise analysis, estimated savings, estimated return on investment and system cost is prepared. We then custom build our product to fit your facility.
Depending upon the rate structure of your electric utility, you may be able to save a substantial amount of money on your electric bill. Payback period for an equipment purchase, including installation cost, may be six months up to three years. Utility rate structures that account for reactive power consumption, by either a kVA or var demand usage, or a power factor penalty, are the ones that can provide this payback. Other ancillary benefits gained by optimizing power factor are, lower energy losses, better voltage regulation and released system capacity.
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